Friday, September 20, 2013

Mexico battered by storms, at least 97 dead

Authorities in Mexico say this morning that the storms battering both of their coasts have caused the heaviest rains on record and have affected more than 1 million people, with at least 97 people dead.

Monday, September 23

I am good, except for the rain. The rain was fun at first, it was a nice change of pace, but now I am just sick of it. I do not like feeling wet all of the time. Yesterday me and my companion worked just like we normally do, he had to buy some medicine after church and then went to a "doctor" to be injected. I have little trust in the medical services here, but it seems like they did it well. The alternative, would have been to go with a member who knows how to inject or to do it himself. He says that he know how to inject himself, because he used to inject his Dad, but I did not think that was a good idea, and luckily he had someone else do it for him.

This morning I woke up and I usually have to wake up my companion, but this morning, knowing that he was sick, I just let him keep sleeping and I got up and exercised and studied and did everything that I normally do. Then I cleaned much of the house, but felt hopeless doing it, knowing that water is going to come in again, and thus, the house will soon be dirty again. Bet you know how I feel! haha. Today is Mexican Independence day, but because of the rain, they have not done anything.

I did not have to do all of the cleaning, but it was nice to be able to serve a little bit. I do not know what type of injection he had to have. He is not diabetic. He eats a lot of salsa, really spice salsa, and also drinks a lot of soda. He has gastritis, I am not sure what that is in English. But, even though he can eat a lot of hot stuff, I can keep up with him, at times. One time at lunch, he ate a really hot chile and everyone was amazed, and then I ate one too. It is kinda fun, he has realized that I can do math in my head really fast, and is often asking me to add things up in my head. Our clothes are in the washing machine a the munoz house right now. oh, and my Elder Garcia fixed my camera! Gordon Reid wrote to me again, that was awesome, I am excited and nervous for Nate!

42 people came to church yesterday including hna. Munoz and Magda and her sister Lupita. We had a conference this week with Elder Johnson, an area seventy. It was really good, but every time we have a conference, I am reminded that President Wagner is not just an ordinary mission president. I feel the spirit as strongly when he talks as when anyone else talks, even not more strongly. Sometimes, he looks like he is almost glowing, it is pretty crazy.

Hna. Munoz knows that you are thinking about and praying for her and she asks about you as well, the rain gets in the house through various places, the house needs a lot of repairs, I think that it gets in mostly through the bottom of the windows,

Highlights of the week.......

Trip to colima for the conference with the Seventy, stayed in the big house in Guzman and me and my comp. bought a big huge pizza.

Doing a ton of pushups, 576 one day and 575 another.

Having a good meeting with president zamora, who....... did not come to church again yesterday.

Reading all of your emails, some of which I could not read last week

The rain,,,,,,,,,,,, not!

3 of the 4 people who talked yesterday have been reactivated in my time here in Tuxpan.

The family of a less active member here came from Guadalajara, he is a counselor in a stake presidency there and has 2 little kids who passed the sacrament, how awesome it was to see 2 brothers passing the sacrament together.

Having a good lesson with Oscar, a less active member, about the restoration.

All of the rest was a pretty normal week, we had a tough time finding members to accompany us for our lessons, and I don´t feel very in touch with the spirit now, but oh well, what do ya do.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Cristian did not come to church because he had to work, it was difficult to find him this week as well because he hurt his knee and other reasons. We had a good week overall. I had a little bit of an argument with my comp, but we quickly got over it, and had some really good lessons on Monday.

We played soccer for a few minutes today and washed our clothes in Ariel Munoz´s sisters house and then it rained and all of the clothes that were hanging up got soaked, I love washing machines!

We had 2 really good lessons on Monday. The branch president here asked to be released. Only 45 people came to church on Sunday. I have decided that I am not going to eat sugar for a while.

Alicia a less active member and her 2 kids who we are teaching came to church on Sunday. Hna. Baltazar, a member who I helped to reactivate talked in church yesterday. Our recent converts Magda and Carmen were not able to make it to church yesterday, and the kids of Alicia were the only investigators who came. Christian's brother and sister in law came to church and we are going to have a lesson with their whole family tomorrow. We made an awesome contact, but when we go to teach the man, he hides from us, and another girl who we contacted does the same. Accepting our visit here would be like one of our neighbors accepting a visit from the Jehovah Witnesses so you can understand why it would be kinda hard.

Sunday, September 8, 2013

This is a picture of the baptism of Carmen and Magda. Carmen is Magda's mom and the other girl in the picture is Lupita, Magdas sister. If I look fat in the picture it is because I am. Lupita is not a member. Lupita is 17 and Magda is 27

(from the mission blog we found these pictures and captions from zone conference)

Everyone is supposed to learn a new language. Spanish speakers are to learn English and of course English speakers are to learn Spanish. So we had a couple activities to encourage them in their learning, which they could also do in their companionships or as districts if both are native Spanish speakers.

In these pictures each person is taking turns reading the Book of Mormon in the language they are learning and the person they are reading with, corrects them on their pronunciation, It was a fun activity and I think we all learned something new.

The food:

We had these great hamburgers made by the wife of the branch president. They were really good!

And then Hermana Wagner (Hija) topped off the meal with these very cute cupcakes!

The Zone

We did not have time to do anything fun today, but it is funny how much you change while on a mission, I do not really care about doing a ton of fun things on p day now, I just want to wash, clean, and write to you guys. Cristian came to church yesterday, as did Carmen, and Magda, our recent converts. Angelica, Magdas friend could not come yesterday, and has been really sick, this week. We had a fun conference in Guzman yesterday and Juan Pablo and Emmanuel were there and I had a fun time talking to them. I had a wonderful time fasting this weekend as I have had many times lately.

Cristian is a stud. He is first person I have taught in my mission that is about my age, and has similar interests, he is the kinda guy that I would have been friends with before my mission. He is related to Juan Manuel somehow and was a referral from him. We taught him the restauration this week and had a very spiritual lesson. He asked very good, very intelligent questions and understands very well. He has a speech problem, but only when he reads. I can understand how he feels, seeing as I have to read in Spanish. He arrived at church at about 10 55 right at the end of sacrament meeting, and I was so happy when I saw him enter. 55 people came to church today, but many more stayed for the 2nd and 3rd hours than that normally do, that was totally awesome. We had way more people in Elders quorum than we ever had before, as well as in Gospel Principles class.

I bore my testimony, again, mostly on fasting. As much as I hated and refused to fast before my mission I love doing it now. It is so much easier to do it, when you are doing it for a specific purpose. I know that I am preaching to the choir telling you guys things that you already know, but for me I am just learning them. I fasted so that Cristian would come to church and for Angelica. Angelica is a friend of Magda. They work together at the Pharmacy, but rarely work together because they are always chatting. We taught her several times in the church this week and she has been really sick. She has colitis, some sort of stomach problem that she has had for 15 years, she is 30 years old, but could pass for 20. Hermana Munoz came to church and her husband did not. She shared her testimony and it was quite discouraging and startling what she said. Apparently she has dreamed that she is going to die while delivering her baby. She delivered Sol early and has had other stomach problems as well. We are going to visit her tonight. The conference in Guzman was a conference for all of the priesthood holder in Guzman.

The highlights of the conference were seeing my Guzman converts, the good, necessary, and ever direct talk of the district president, president Torres. It was the best talk that he has given in my time in this zone. As is his custom he chewed out he members. We as missionaries, are protected from these direct comments except for the occasions when President Wagner is there ( the other members consider us to be angels, and President Wagner knows the truth, haha.) President Torres talked about the oath and covenant of the priesthood and about paying fast offerings. About 140 or 150 people came to church yesterday in Guzman and the branch received 660 pesos of fast offering money, (like 4 or 5 pesos for each member, or in other words, like nothing)

The other highlight was Elder Turley, he is from Idaho, finishes his mission in December and is the President of the Sayula Branch in Sayula. His spanish is better than half of the latin people. His talk was easier to understand than the closing prayer. I have never heard an American speak spanish like him, other than President Wagner, who was born in Mexico. Elder Turley is a boy among men. I was not able to see hardly any Guzman members other than the Diaz Lopez family.

Zone conference went well, the test was really easy. I felt like my spanish was ok at times this week and bad at others. It rained like crazy this week and I have continued to do pushups like an absolute mad man. I read Nates letter and am not sure if it was really written by him.

This is a picture of the baptism of Carmen and Magda. Carmen is Magdas mom and the other girl in the picture is Lupita, Magdas sister. If I look fat in the picture it is because I am. Thanks for the letters, they were very awesome and encouraging.

Cristian works in his family's store. Which is kinda funny, they sell catholic stuff. His brother and sister in law are really interested in the church as well, the other elders here in Tuxpan are teaching them. About Cheryl, I do not know for sure. Actually, the rule here is that you have to live the word of wisdom for one week before being baptized as well, but Carmen drank coffee less than a week before her baptism and did not tell us, but told Elder Mills in her baptismal interview, but elder mills felt like she was ready to be baptized and so he let her pass the interview, he said he has failed people before, so that was not the issue. Hna. Munoz is due in a little less than 2 months.

Lupita is not a member. Lupita is 17 and Magda is 27

My toes are great! I loved hearing about the Polynesian Elders in Nates letter, sounds like they are the exact same people as they were when I left. Do you remember the time when the fire alarm went off when I was in the MTC because a polynesian elder tried to iron his hair! It was totally awesome, I also remember seeing them at the vending machines rather frequently. O, and when they questioned him about the hair ironing incident, he pretended to not be able to speak english! haha.

Everyone here is Catholic, 105 percent, it just does not mean much. We have been eating hamburgers fairly frequently with the neighbors of the other elders, haha, that is the good food that we have been eating. Oh, and for your information, during zone conference, my companion told pres. Wagner about a cool investigator that we found while hitchiking a ride and President Wagner took advantage of the situation to make it clear that we will never travel in a rides again, just so that you are not worried about that now, haha.